LBsys 




Wit 



J 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 754 664 1 



Hollinger Corp. 
pH8.5 



The Definition of Education 



COLE 



THE DEFINITION 

OF 

EDUCATION 



BY 

Glenn Gates Cole. 

Dean of Virginia Christian College, 

Lynchburg, Virginia. 



A Synopsis and Outline of Lectures 
Delivered in the Normal Class. 



1914 

G. G. Cole, Publisher, 

Holmesville, Ohio. 



Copyright, 1914 
by Glenn Gates Cole. 



V \j 



O.i^sT^ 



._ ©CI,A380041 



PREFACE 

The material brought together in the present work is 
the result of several years of study along educational lines, 
and observations and experience resulting from teaching in 
various grades and classes of schools. In the present form 
they are in essence and order the development of a series of 
lectures delivered before the splendid large Normal Class 
of Teachers in Virginia Christian College, Lynchburg, 
Virginia. 

No credit is due for anything new in this field of 
thought. The only excuse for placing it in book form is 
that certain features are deemed worthy of such emphasis, 
and certain viewpoints are worthy of particular notice. 
Especially is this true concerning the insidious influences 
and processes which tend to reduce education to material 
evolution, governed entirely by reason. No true discussion 
of the mind is possible unless the influence of the Divine 
and the power of Faith be recognized. Evolution, so- 
called, is impotent to explain either the final test for 
ethics, or the ultimate content of education. This century 
will witness a re-adjustment of education from the plane 
of mere intellectuality to the sphere of a dominant 
CHRISTIAN Education. May this modest effort be 
found emphatically upon the side of such results. 

Not as a finished dissertation, but as a synopsis of a 
comprehensive scheme is this monograph sent forth by 

THE AUTHOR. 
Lynchburg, Va., May 10, 1914. 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/definitionofeducOOcole 



THE DEFINITION OF EDUCATION 



I. POPULAR VIEWS OF EDUCATION 

Although Education is undoubtedly a Science, it is not 
one of the Exact Sciences, because in its definition and 
scope it has never been uniformly considered, nor have its 
laws been formulated systematically. This is precluded 
by the nature of mind itself, and the mind is the real 
subject in education. The Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal 
Kingdoms provide material whose properties and phe- 
nomena are reducible to exact principles and laws, con- 
sistent in general, to man's rational grasp. But in 
considering Mind, the Psychic Kingdom, faith, to a certain 
extent, must replace reason, and the properties and phe- 
nomena concerned are to a less extent reducible to exact 
principles and laws. This is because of Man's divinely- 
given right of choice. 

Although studied for thousands of years, we have very 
diverse statements of views of education as given today. 
Without a more commonly accepted view, we can have no 
adequate basis upon which to found a Science. Proper 
definition is necessary for a correct development of Science, 
or Mathematics, and it is equally as important in 
Psychology and Education. If one man uses a term to 
express one meaning, and another the same term to express 



a different meaning, clearness must suffer. It is just such 
lack of unity that has led to the diverse views of Education 
which exist today. As a result any man who is called 
upon to discuss Education, is compelled to formulate his 
ideas of what Education is. 

In consequence, we have a varied statement of the 
views of education. But what are -these views? Briefly, a 
number of them are discussed as follows: 

1. Education is an Accumulation of Knowledge. This 
tenet has come down the ages with myriads of followers. 
In all probability it is the most generally accepted view at 
the present time. To many, the mere mastery of text- 
books is the essential of education, and they are in favor 
of barring the subjects like Higher Mathematics and the 
Ancient I^anguages because such accumulations of knowl- 
edge are almost valueless as such. Blindly in the past, and 
just as blindly in the present, the advocates of this theory 
tenaciously hold their course. They actually accomplish 
some valuable educational results, not realizing, however, 
that it is incidental and not as a product of their method. 
Examinations are the stock in trade of these educators. 
A Chinese wall of parrot scholarship is built, including an 
aristocracy of learning, more fixed than any of birth or 
wealth. 

2. Education is an Evolution. The adherents to 
this theory have applied to mental development in the 
individual, the evolutionary processes attributed to pro- 
gressive civilization. Just as in the childhood of the race, 
languages originated, barbarity abounded, sensations were 
over-trained, and lastly, the ethical and rational developed; 
so, in the individual, the child learns to talk, vicious in- 
stincts predominate, sensation is alert, and lastly, morality 
and reason develop. Thus viewed, the history of civil- 
ization repeats itself in natural order in the growing mind 
and varying tastes of the pupil. The baby is a barbarian ; 
the child, a savage ; and only adult life is typical of modern 
civilization. While the parallel does exist, it is not so clear 
that it is caused by any evolutionary tendencies; indeed. 



that it is anything more than a figure is extremely falla- 
cious. Some of the generalizations of this class of theorists 
are ingenious, but their truth is open to the same criticism 
so evident to other of the Evolution theories. 

3. Education is a Material Change. In this theory 
Material Psychology is used as a basis, and' education is a 
process of properly impressing matter through its energy 
functions: sensation and thought. This limits the appli- 
cation of educational attainments to life, merely, or just so 
long as the corporeal mechanism possesses vitality. Edu- 
cation is thus reduced to a sordid life condition. It is an 
expedient fairly valuable for this life, but ceases at death. 
Advocates of this theory compare the mind to marble, 
which under the careful chiseling of the master sculptor. 
the teacher, can be carved into the most delicate and beau- 
tiful results, or irretrievably ruined by a single false stroke. 
While beautiful as a simile, this does not, in the completest 
sense, represent education. A more appropriate figure 
would be to represent the mind as wax, or soft plaster, 
from which the beautiful figure can be moulded ; where 
false strokes can be eradicated, although with outlay of 
time and patience. In this theory, the brain cells being 
literally matter, the educative processes are designed to 
produce permanent change in them.. Those who reject the 
material mind, consider the shaping process as not termin- 
ating upon the brain matter itself, but through it, upon 
the immaterial mind. 

4. Education is an Emancipation from Environment. 
In this beautiful theory, mankind is represented as being 
originally placed in a position and under a condition, where 
he was without experience and knowledge, and more or 
less helpless amidst his surroundings. That, in this sav- 
age state, he discovered his ability to clothe and shelter 
himself, thus emancipating him from the effects of heat 
and cold. His advance from savagery to civilization, up 
the long path of the ages, has been a continual eff'ort to 
make himself less and less the victim of environment, and 
more and more able to shape that environmnt to his own 



culture, luxury, and enjoyment. He has emancipated him- 
self from fatiguing journeys by swift machinery of motion, 
and from disease by sanitation, and thus even lengthened 
the average span of life. 

5. Education is a Process Preparirig for Complete 
Living. Spencer sought to develop an interest in the prac- 
tical side of education, and in so doing rendered a valuable 
service to the cause. Extreme advocates of these ideas 
generally limit the thought of completeness to a limited 
scope with the result that the object of the complete living 
to be attained centers in selfishness or fad. This agitation 
has proved beneficial in calling back those who preferred 
abstract studies as tools of development, to a concession to 
practical studies, in so far as they, at the same time, met 
the needs for true growth. We have learned that there is 
as much discipline obtained in properly teaching a practical 
science as in the study of a dead language. 

6. Education is the Forming of Character. There is 
no doubt but that as an end to be attained through training, 
all true education does result in such a product. Educa- 
tion, however, is a process and not a product, and the 
teacher must deal with the process. Character is the 
result of mind growth in the proper direction, influenced 
by right motives, and fixed by the forming of right habits. 
The horticulturist, truly, as an analogy, seeks to produce 
the perfect apple, but his duties are all concerned in the 
culture and care and arrangement of environment through 
which the perfect fruit is obtained. 

7. Education is the Means of Developing Rational 
Beings. It is evident that formal processes of reasoning 
and the fixing of truth in the character of the individual, 
in consequence, is a part of education. But education must 
be more. Mere rationality does not make one an educated 
being. Of course, through an explication of the scope and 
meaning of the term "rational" as here used, it might be 
made to include much that passes generally under the head 
of education. Right thinking is essential to real develop- 
ment, but practice in expression is quite as necessary. 



8. Education is a Training hi Behavior, Produced 
through Habits. This gives us another view of education, 
but the definition is defective in that it places the object of 
the process, and one of the means by which it is attained 
as the meaning of the term. It is true that habit-forming 
is one of the most important factors in education, and the 
habits invariably determine the behavior. But education 
is more than behavior. It is a process ; it is an activity. 
Its true definition must be approached from that position. 

9. Education is a Growth. The greatest impetus to 
the intelligent study of education has come from its con- 
sideration as a real growth. As plant life, or animal life, 
to evince growth, requires natural conditions, natural 
transpositions, and resulting natural products; so mental 
life grows, and that, too, under rational restrictions and 
laws, even though modified by spiritual forces. When we 
have a real Science of Education, it will come through the 
reduction of these natural processes to formulated laws. 
It will never come through empirical laws, for the very 
freedom of mind precludes such a possibility. A perfect 
plant and a perfect animal is possible when developed 
through natural means; an abnormal plant and stunted 
animal result invariably from unnatural means. Culture 
tending toward the perfect mind is possible only through 
proper growth, while a mental monstrosity results from any 
other. Dr. B. A. Hinsdale said : "The common conception 
of education makes it consist of attainments or knowledge, 
but the proper conception makes it mental growth or power 
of mind." 



II. THE DEFINITION OF EDUCATION 

The idea of growth requires emphasis in Education. 
Christ said, "First the blade, then the ear, after that the 
full corn in the ear." Like most of his surprising teach- 
ings, this reveals a wonderful insight into the workings of 
the mind of man. In it, he recognizes the purpose of God 
in unfolding the Divine plan in harmony with the changing 
and growing needs of mankind. Why did God take four 
thousand years to perfect his plans for man's redemption? 
Because he had created in him the freedom of choice, a 
mind capable of initiation, of reason, and of execution. 
His dealings with man have recognized the principle of 
intellectual as well as of physical growth. 

After testing education by the theories of centuries, 
and measuring it by the standards of accredited truth, we 
come to look upon it as a process analogous to the distin- 
guishing vital function called growth. In coming to this 
position, we have discovered nothing new. The so-called 
"new education" is not new. Its foundation principles 
were the basis of Christ's teachings; it was consistent 
with God's method from the beginning. So, in recognizing 
the entire system of education as resting upon growth, we 
do not antagonize the teaching of the spirit of the Great 
Teacher, neither do we assert a principle that contravenes 
that which is true in the theories of those in authority from 
that time until now. Dr. R. H. Holbrook said, "God might 
have created all things perfect, making change unthinkable, 
progress, learning, happiness, and salvation impossible, but 
he did not. Free-will, self-responsibility, and the partner- 
ship of man with God as creator, are possible and thinkable 
only as under a law of growth established by God. All 
growth is of the Divine, not of the human, since growth is 
but a plan by which Divine force works." 

Starting with the principle of growth, we must clearly 
determine the entity upon which, and in which, the grow- 

10 



ing processes act. If we accept the Spartan idea, then 
physical growth might pass for education; if we receive 
the theory of many modern speculators, then rational 
growth might be designated as true education. It is thus 
possible to have the theories already noted, and more, 
passing for education. Such a condition lacks the exclu- 
sion and exactness that a term of such importance demands. 
The intellectual is not enough, either, to include all the 
content of education ; the sensibility and will also need 
growth and training. Intellect, sensibility, and will con- 
stitute what is called the mind, and hence the entire mind 
is concerned in education. From this consideration, we 
will now make a formal statement of the definition of 
Education : 

Education is the correct growth of the mind in 
motives, tendeyicies, and habits. This definition is designed 
for education as it appeals to us. There may be growth 
in motives, tendencies, and habits which are evil as well 
as in the right. This phase requires that the above defini- 
tion can be made perfectly general by the omission of 
the word "correct." The great failure in developing and 
defining education is, in consequence, the inability to limit 
and fix it. Every effort to do so has partaken of the same 
illogical basis that morals, or systems of ethics, have en- 
countered: the lack of a standard. And just as Christ, and 
the Christ doctrine must be the determining factor in 
ethics, just so must his life touch and spiritualize education 
if it is to be free from criticism. Hence, an education may 
like ethics reflect the borrowed light of Christ's righteous- 
ness, in public education, secular education, and the like, 
but it will never be based upon the truth until it rests 
upon Christ for its standard of measurement. This is 
what has made the Church school, and the Church college, 
and the Church university a more potent factor in true 
education than it has been accredited. If there is any one 
germ of virility in the new education above the old, it is 
this tinge for righteousness, even if unrecognized. The 
time has come, when this obligation of education to the 

11 



teachings of Christ must be acknowledged, and if the world 
compels the elimination of the Christ factor in it formally 
expressed, it must be understood as implied. To this end, 
the word "correct" is made to recognize this standard of 
authority in the definition as expressed above. Any de- 
velopment of mind which does not result in a growth toward 
the Christ, or at least toward a condition consistent with 
his teachings, can not be considered as conforming to this 
test. 

It is to be noted, in passing, that all real education is 
included in this definition because in a broad sense "correct 
growth" of mind insures the so-called Moral education, and 
Physical education is a necessary condition for such 
growth. A correct growth of mind depends upon a correct 
growth of body as well. The body exists for the mind. 

With the ascendancy of Democratic and Republican 
government, education passed from the control of the 
Church to the control of the government. This is proper, 
and no part of our free government is more worthy than 
the facilities it presents for the advancement of learning. 
But conditions have very much changed. Although our 
government was based upon a recognized separation of 
State from Church, the fact remained that the Church and 
religious influences permeated the popular mind, and the 
moral element was especially reflected in the teachers and 
teaching of the early times. The Bible was the most gen- 
erally used text-book in the schools. It was the one text 
through which many a child learned to spell and read. The 
instruction in consequence was not only moral, but it was 
a morality based upon religion, with the Revelation of God 
as the real standard for testing the correctness of the ethi- 
cal principles impressed. But a designing minority has 
influenced much in our government and has changed the 
nature of our schools. At first, it was content in banishing 
the Bible as a text, but as time went on, its influence 
secured the abolishment of the book as even a source of 
reading and instruction, and in some localities for the 
teacher to even read an opening lesson from it each day. 

12 



would inaugurate a riot or result in driving the teacher 
from the school. The generation of teachers of today, in 
consequence, has been the product of an education which 
has tested its advancement and verified its conclusions 
from sources other than Revelation. Philosophy, the 
Theory of Evolution, and the uncertainities of Criticism 
have become the standards for testing the educational pro- 
cesses and results. The time has come, not only to go back 
to Revelation, but to place the Bible once more in the Public 
Schools. An education can not be normal unless it has in 
it the elements of Christianity and takes its direction 
through that influence. 

The spiritual element in education can not be safely 
neglected. Denominational education is not essential, but 
Christian education is. The growth of mind is of such a 
nature, and its spiritual development so much an integral 
part of it, that any system of education that disregards it 
is a warped, unsystematic, unnatural process. The God 
behind truth, the God author of truth, the God power in 
truth can not be rightly eliminated and normal growth 
result. 

The small church college is the real force in American 
education today. The great spirit pervading the teaching 
profession has been kindled by this influence. The greatest 
catastrophe that could befall our schools would be the elim- 
ination of this vital influence from the teaching staff of our 
land. This influence gives us leaders whose character is 
the product of Christian environment, personal contact with 
spiritually enlightened souls and normal intellectual ac- 
tivity. Dr. Chancellor says, "There never was culture 
without religion, and there can be no real college education 
divorced from the Bible and church influences." 

The standard for testing growth of mind is the revealed 
Word of God. Science can prove an originating and 
guiding power, but it can not establish the attributes and 
nature of that power in its fullness; revelation is our only 
authentic source of knowledge of God. We should not 
limit his power to the few laws he has given for the control 

13 



of the universe, nor limit his logic to the few laws of human 
philosophy. Hence through faith we can accept his 
miracles and believe his revelations, even though they con- 
tradict our science and transcend our theories. The 
theories of science are but the effort toward explaining the 
phenomena with which science deals. These theories are 
to be made at all times subservient to God's revelation, and 
adjusted to it, and no effort made to adjust revelation to 
the so-called science. Any attempt at an empirical teachmg 
of speculation as truth is to be deplored, and its dangers 
are evident. The mind of man is not greater than the 
wisdom of God ; hence, when the theories of man and the 
teachings of God conflict, man is in error. His conclusions 
should not be considered as final, but as tentative and spec- 
ulative. Education tested by the .true standard owes a 
debt to the world. It is its duty to stamp the wild, man- 
centering theorizing, which so often passes for scientific 
truth, with its real value and perspective, and in accepting 
as true just such as conforms to the standard adopted. 
Any other method will lead to the unsettling of Christian 
conviction, and consequent religious uncertainty. Mater- 
ialism in science and philosophy is rightly losing its 
authority ; it is no longer necessary for the student to be 
skeptical in order to be scientific. Empirical scepticism, 
however, has so firmly entrenched itself in text-book and 
authority that it needs a teacher of spiritual discernment 
to help the student discover the sophistry and lay bare the 
dazzling gloss. 

The definition of education as given in this chapter 
involves the consideration of six terms: (1) Correct, 
(2) Growth, (3) Mind, (4) Motives, (5) Tendencies, and 
(6) Habits. The first of these has been considered as 
related to a proper standard for testing the correctness of 
the educative processes. The others will be considered, a 
chapter being given to each, in the pages which follow. 
For reasons that will appear, the subject of Mind will be 
taken up before the Growth. 



14 



III. THE MIND 

The old Psychologists recognized two phases of the 
nature of man as Spirit and Soul. The former was the 
moral and religious power; the latter, the rational. The 
Spirit was the eternal principle, the part surviving death ; 
while the Soul, like the body, was put off and ended when 
the Spirit took its flight from the body. This led to the 
recognition of two distinct kinds of education: (1) The 
moral, or spiritual; and (2) The so-called intellectual. 

The modern Psychologists have gradually built up a 
system which minimizes the Spirit phase and enlarges the 
scope of the Soul. They have recognized every faculty of 
spirit as closely related to the faculties of the Soul. In 
short, it is untenable today to conceive of a phase of man's 
immaterial nature which can exist apart from memory, 
reason, judgment and imagination. These faculties are as 
essential to morals, to religion, and to the revealed eternal 
condition as they are to the so-called intellect. But with 
this shifting of the faculties to the Soul exclusively, the 
moral, religious, and eternal ideas have, in a large measure, 
been abandoned, and the intellectual phase made prominent. 
From such a result, education has assumed tjie considera- 
tion of an intellectual process entirely, for they have failed 
to recognize the moral and religious in this New Education. 

The nature of man as recognized, generally, then, can 
be thus summed up : 

I. Body : the dwelling place, 
II. Spirit : the vital link, 
III. Soul, or Mind: the eternal principle. 

And this is the way I desire to consider man in my 
conception of Education. I would, however, conceive that 
the moral and religious is as necessary of training as the 
intellect, and essential to a correct training of the mind, 

16 



The religious writer, on the other hand,- has departed 
widely from the psychologist. While the psychologist has 
transferred the formerly recognized faculties of Spirit to 
Soul ; he has transferred them from Soul to Spirit. This 
is clearly set forth by Goodwin, who said, "The spirit of 
man is that part of our nature which corresponds to the 
infinite Father of Spirits. It is the ego, the personality, 
the man within the man, from which as the utmost foun- 
tain or heart of our being, thought, affection, volition, and 
character proceed. It is the seat of moral responsibility, 
the organ of faith and love, and so of religion and com- 
munion with God. It is the highest and divinest part of 
our nature, the very image of God in which we were cre- 
ated. The soul, or psyche, is that which gives life to the 
body as its indwelling or animating principle. It is not 
a free and self-active power, like the pneuma, not visible 
and material, like the body, not a self-conscious intelligence 
enlightened from within or above, but derives all its knowl- 
edge from the senses, and its humanity, by which it is 
difl'erentiated from the animal souls, from the spirit. It 
is thus a connecting and a mediating link between body and 
spirit, bringing down the spiritual into the sphere and life 
of the body, and elevating the physical to be the instrument 
and organ of the spirit." If the terms "soul" and "spirit" 
as here used by Mr. Goodwin were reversed, this quotation 
would be a clear statement of the generally accepted 
psychological view. 

Man is a wonderful trichotomy. Whether his three- 
fold nature is a part of that fact that he was created in the 
image of the triune God, concerns the theologian and not 
the educator. As we know him, and bring educative 
powers to bear upon him, we find him composed of body, 
the dwelling place ; soul, or mind, the controlling principle ; 
and a vital, connecting link, termed spirit. To avoid the 
confliction before noted, I shall speak of the Soul as Mind. 

The mind is eternal. Granting that there may be cer- 
tain mind limitations so closely related to the body that a 
dissociation of body and mind may cause their elimination 

16 



from the eternal soul, we must still recognize the eternal, 
and the everlasting in man. Reason does not prove it, law 
does not fix it ; it is the product of faith, the fixed fiat of 
revelation. The teacher who does not tremble in the face 
of his great responsibility in dealing with the eternal soul, 
has never been born into the life of a teacher. 

The mind is immaterial in the sense of our usual con- 
ception of matter. Since it is imponderable, its phases 
can best be understood through analogy. The best objects 
for consideration from analogy are plants and animals, in 
their relation to growth. In plants the minerals from the 
soil and gases from the air are acquired as food for growth. 
These are changed, transformed, and assimilated into plant 
cells and differentiated into various tissues. These tissues 
express themselves in substances of economic value, in 
flower, and in fruit. In the animal body the foods from 
minerals, plants, and animals are acquired and absorbed, 
the valuable portions assimilated into cells and tissues of 
the body, and expressed through heat, cell-growth, and 
force. So, in mind, we can reason by analogy that in order 
to grow, there must be certain factors or appropriate foods 
supplied ; these must be assimilated by the mind, changed, 
transformed, and expressed as ideas, words, speech, gesture, 
or art. 

The mind is a unit. While psychologists divide it for 
convenience into certain functions and parts, it must be 
remembered that at all times it is indivisibly the sum of all 
these parts, and the container of all the processes and 
manifestations. 

The mind is self-active. This is important to the 
educator as implying that mental growth and unfolding 
must come from within. Indeed, it is notable that the ety- 
mology of the word, "education," {E, out; diico, to lead), 
recognizes this fact. The motive force of mind is generated 
within ; each must imagine his own ideas, form his own 
judgments, think his own thoughts. The best teacher in 
the world can produce no greater growth than is measured 
by the potential power of the self-active mind. W. T. 

17 



Harris aptly said, ''Educational method is prone to neglect 
too much the individual peculiarities, and above all to 
undervalue the self-activity of the pupil in gathering 
knowledge." And Dr. B. A. Hinsdale said along the same 
line, "The mind grows only as it is active. Subject to the 
law of inheritance, a man's soul makes his character 
through his own activity." 

The mind is related to the body during life. The 
nature of this relationship is a mysterj^ We look upon the 
nerves, ganglia, brain, etc., as the basis of this relationship, 
and recognize particular faculties of mind as localized in 
definite portions of the brain or nerves. In the body re- 
lationship these regions appear to be where certain mental 
forces manifest themselves. But mental force is not 
similar to physical force. Physical force always produces 
some sensible change although it may require a delicate 
instrument, at times, to detect it ; mental force, in its 
strict limits, may not produce sensible change. In practical 
limits, however, modern science claims to be able to discern 
a physical change in the body, and assumes to be able to 
measure the temperature of a thought, the force of an 
emotion, the weight of an affection, etc., by delicate instru- 
ments. Still, this is but partial; there is something about 
mental force that can not be measured. 

The classification of phenomena of the mind is em- 
braced in Psychology. This is the science of mental facts, 
and the laws which govern them. It is as necessary that 
the teacher be familiar with the science of psychology, as 
that a physician should know anatomy and physiology, or 
a lawyer know constitutional law. A teacher to know how 
to develop the mind should know how the mind develops. 
He should be able to test the correctness of his methods and 
the grade of work presented from its relation to the de- 
veloping mind. The correct growth of mind requires the 
correct mental food and the correct mental conditions. 

There are two conditions of mind in which we, as 
teachers, are concerned. These are Consciousness and 
Attention. The former is the condition in which the mind 

18 



does its work; the latter, the condition in which it is con- 
centrated upon its work. Attention is the condition which 
is of vital importance in the teaching processes. An ex- 
tended discussion of teaching must of necessity have much 
to say of its nature, use and kinds. We hear so much 
about attention as essential in teaching, that we are prone 
to forget that it is to be sought like any other desirable 
quality, only with moderation. The child should volun- 
tarily attend to and cheerfully follow the instruction of the 
teacher, but this attention should not be strained to the 
breaking point, by severe exercise foreign to his nature. 

The phenomena of the mind may in general be called 
Powers. They are the inherent or developed ability of the 
individual. We recognize these Powers as follows. 

I. Sensibility: power to feel, 
II. Intellect: power to know. 
III. Will : power to direct. 

The development of these powers will not be considered 
here. It belongs to the domain of psychology, and even a 
brief presentation would require much space. A brief 
synopsis, however, of the whole subject is appended below, 
as developed from the standpoint of the teacher : 

Powers of the Mind 

I. Sensibility: power to feel. Phenomena, feelings. 

1. Physical feelings: animal, from the body. 

a. Sensations : feelings caused by physical activity. 

b. Appetites: periodic or intermittent feelings oc- 

casioned by vital wants of the body. 

c. Instincts: automatic feelings occasioned by sen- 

sation and appetite. 

2. Psychical feelings : rational, from the soul. 

a. Emotions : feelings of internal excitement of 

soul. 

b. Affections : feelings of internal fulness of soul. 

c. Desires : feelings of internal cravings of soul. 

19 



3. Voluntary feelings : educational, from the will. 

a. Imitation. 

b. Emulation. 

c. Ambition. 

II. Intellect: power to know. Phenomena, faculties. 
1. Acquisitional phase : outside-in process. 

a. Presentative faculties. 

(1) Objective: Sensations, empirical knowl- 

edge. 

(2) Subjective: Intuition, rational knowledge. 

b. Apperceptive faculties. 

( 1 ) Perception : faculty of receiving a sensa- 

tion or an intuition. 

(2) Conception: faculty of acquiring by com- 

bination of percepts, or other concepts, or 
both. "Understanding." 

c. Retentive faculty : Memory, faculty of retaining 

and recalling knowledge. 

2. Assimilational phase: inside process. 

a. Representative faculties. 

(1) Recollection. 

(2) Remembrance. 

b. Elaborative faculties. 

(1) Rational. 

(a) Judgment: establishing quality or 

likeness. 

(b) Reason: drawing conclusions. 

(2) Creative: Imagination, creating new re- 

lations. 

3. Expressional phase : inside-out process. 

a. Speech. 

b. Composition. 

c. Gesture. 

d. Art, Sculpture, Music, etc. 

III. Will : power to direct. Phenomena, acts. 



20 



IV. THE GROWTH OF THE MIND 

Growth presupposes four things: (1) A vital element 
inherent in the thing capable of growth, (2) Aliments, or 
Foods, appropriate to the growing thing, (3) Conditions 
and Environment tending to development, and (4) Products 
of Growth. 

In the case of Plant Growth, we recognize the necessity 
of the vital principle being in the seed. Without it, 
growth would be impossible, regardless of the care and 
work bestowed upon it. This seed must be placed amidst 
the aliments from which it can obtain the material to be 
assimilated and added to itself. These aliments are known 
as phosphates, nitrates, and other chemical elements and 
compounds. The germinating seed and the growing plant 
must be surrounded by a favorable environment of warmth 
and moisture, trained to assume the position most favor- 
able, pruned, and cared for. As a result of these things, 
it reaches maturity, fulfills its mission, bears the expected 
fruit and in due time perishes. 

In the case of the Growth of our Body, we likewise 
recognize the indwelling vital principle. It is the thing 
which distinguishes the living from a dead body. This 
body must be fed upon an aliment appropriate to its needs. 
These foods are known as proteids, sugars, fats, and 
minerals. With proper environment of pure air, proper 
moisture, warmth, clothing, exercise, and care, the body 
grows and comes to maturity. It functions into force, 
and work, fulfills its mission and in due time perishes. 

So of the Mind. It contains the indwelling vital ele- 
ment. Through it, the healthy, normal child is self-active. 
Just as the seed of the plant contains the possibility of 
growth and development, an inherent, self-contained vital- 
ity which can not be added to from without, so the mind of 
the child possesses a vital possibility which is capable of 
growth and development. 

21 



The subjects taught are the foods for mind growth. 
But food alone is not enough. There must be a reaction 
to the food stimuli in digestion, and an exercise of the 
tissues produced by assimilation. Growth takes place 
through activity. We know there can be no physical 
growth without exercise, neither can there be any mental 
growth without it. The healthy child enjoys physical ex- 
ercise. He is happy in his play because it is the normal 
means of exercise. In like manner, the child is happy in 
his mental groM^th. His mind is filled with questions he 
wants answered, with a healthy curiosity he wants satis- 
fied. Through this his mind grows. Too often the teacher 
and his methods of procedure crush this spontaneous 
growth of mind, and we reduce him to a passive recipient 
of poorly adapted instruction. This mental exercise in- 
truded too often produces arrested mental development. 
H there is one practical thing, one well-authenticated truth, 
taught by the Montessori method, it is a recognition not 
only of the inherent self-activitj^ of the child, but the possi- 
bility of its exercise of mind being natural and spontaneous 
when properly directed. 

Consciousness is the condition in which the mind does 
its work. It is not the same in any two minds even though 
they be following the same thoughts, for the. thoughts of 
each are modified by a tinge, or a setting, of all the personal 
mental accumulations. The consciousness of the very 
young child is not the consciousness of its older years. 
Consciousness changes. The primary act of consciousness 
is sensory perception, and intuition. At first it is reached 
only through the senses. Sensation leads to perception. 
Along with such percepts, come those of intuition. Awak- 
ening of mind comes from the stimuli of external objects. 
By such reaction it begins growth. The assimilation of 
such stimuli arouses feelings, and as the "mental tissues" 
thus grow through exercise, these feelings are expressed 
in action. 

Mind exercise is the act of learning. The three phases 
of exercise are acquisition, assimilation, and expression. 

22 



Acquisition from the psychological standpoint includes 
percepts, concepts, and retention. There is no real ac- 
quisition without retention. Just as the greatest physical 
growth occurs in childhood, so the greatest mental growth 
occurs at that time. The memory is more retentive in 
childhood. Then, as later, associated facts are more 
readily retained. The acquisition itself comes through 
sense-contact. The object outside becomes the image- 
percept, and this in turn goes to make up the image, which 
forms the concept. It is an "outside-in" process. Not 
that there is any definite transfer of any material thing 
from without to the mind, but because the stimuli from 
without cause a reaction of the faculties within and the 
mind grows through the mental facts added as a result of 
its self-activity. 

The second phase of mind growth is called assimilation. 
It is also spoken of as the "inside" process. It consists of 
recollection, judgment, generalization, or reason, and imagi- 
nation. The assimilational phase is not as strong in the 
young child as it becomes in later years. His acquisition 
is likely to be fragmentary and not systematic. The com- 
pleting of fragmenary knowledge through reason and the 
imagination, and the classifying and systematizing is pres- 
ent in a small degree. Hence, the necessity of the teacher 
attending to the presentation of associated sensations and 
ideas. But as the child becomes possessed of an abundant 
wealth of material, he passes to a higher phase of exercise, 
and judgment, reason and imagination strengthen. As 
a result of this phase of mental growth, a process similar 
to fruitation in the plant occurs. Original ideas are 
evolved, new relationships of thought are formulated. The 
child really thinks in the fullest sense. But just as the 
fruit of the plant must be used by some other life form, 
or expressed in reproduction, so the results of thought 
must be given out that others may use it, or it must be 
planted in other minds that it may there be an aliment 
for mind growth. This leads to the phase of Expression, 
the "inside-out" process, which finds exercise in speech, 

23 



composition, gesture, music, art, and sculpture. As the 
assimilational phase seems to be a more highly developed 
one than the acquisitional, so the expressional phase is 
higher than the assimilational. While the little child has 
some power of expression, we look for it only in a rudi- 
mentary degree. The composition tasks of the little child 
are not easy because his facts are few and poorly assim- 
ilated. As well try to draw fish from an empty brook as 
try to get facts from an empty brain. The only road to 
success in composition is not in its expression, but in the 
preparation for it. It must be preceded by an abundance 
of facts acquired ; these facts carefully assimilated, imagi- 
nation exercised, and then the mind is stored with some- 
thing to write. The child will express in some way, if it 
has anything to express. 

It is possible to classify the general divisions of knowl- 
edge as set forth in text-books into groups on the basis of 
their rank as mind foods. The acquisitional studies in- 
clude Science and History; the assimilational ones. Math- 
ematics and Philosophy ; while the expressional studies 
include Literature, Language, and the Arts. Of course, 
each of these branches contains portions that are at once 
acquisitional, reflective, and expressional, but as subjects 
their great value in mind growth is as indicated. 

In arranging a course of study for various grades, this 
theory of mind growth has a use. The lower grades should 
start with matter which is largely acquisitive. Reading, 
spelling, drawing, writing, are all acquisitional in their at- 
tainment, but expressional in their use. Nature study, and 
descriptive science, much of history, the tables and funda- 
mental rules of arithmetic,, the vocabulary and easier 
studies of language, the stories and plots of literature, — 
all consist of acquisitional processes. In the grammar 
grades, and the high school, the reasons and deductive 
generalizations of science, the so-called philosophy of his- 
tory, the solutions of abstract problems in arithmetic and 
algebra, and geometry, the technical distinctions of lan- 
guage, and the philosophy and form of literary expression, 

24 



belong more especially to the assimilative processes. Such 
are continued into the College curriculum through the 
higher mathematics, the logic, the psychology, criticism, 
theory of government, and economics, and the history of 
philosophy, etc. In the high school and college, the higher 
phases of expression have an important part consisting of 
composition, manual training, constructions of charts, dia- 
grams, outlines, synopses, rhetoricals, laboratory work, 
note-books, debating, orations and the like. 

The processes of mind growth from the teaching view- 
point, follow largely the order of logic and the science of 
psychology. Methods must rest largely upon the processes 
as there set forth. 

In teaching, the Sensations must be recognized as a 
starting point. The senses are capable of exercise, and 
thus of growth. Of course the extent of this exercise and 
growth is consequent to the self-inherent possession of the 
individual student. One original defect of education was the 
failure to recognize the senses in their relation to correct 
method. Modern education has rectified this negligence 
to a great extent. Every highly educated person has been 
one whose sensations were alert, whose observation was 
trained. In some cases this is accomplished entirely with- 
out the assistance of the teacher ; indeed, in some cases 
opposed by the teacher. The superior attainments of 
Shakespeare, Milton, and Newton, rested upon a basis of 
senses trained. Agazziz was an exponent of the value of 
trained senses in education. 

Next to Sensation comes Conception, and its processes 
of interlinking through Perception. Conception as a 
faculty is a product of a process conforming strictly to the 
growth of Mind. In its full procedure, it recognizes these 
stages : 

1. Presentation, by which percepts, sense-percepts, 
and other percepts are placed in consciousness. These 
may be newly acquired, or drawn from the memory as 
needed. 

2. Comparison, which is a mental process in which 

25 



the elements of knowledge presented are associated, or 
placed side by side for examination. 

3. Analysis, which is a process of noting these parts, 
or elements in their relation to the ideas compared. 

4. Abstraction, which consists of drawing off and 
grouping like parts or elements as noted through analysis. 

5. Synthesis, which consists of re-combining the 
known and recognized elements as grouped together by 
abstraction. 

6. Classification, which is a process of re-associating 
the grouped elements on some basis. 

7. Generalization, which is a summing up of a com- 
mon basis. 

8. Denomination, which is an assignment of a 
term, or word, or symbol, to represent the product of the 
conception. 

9. Definition. The processes thus carried out lead to 
a mental grasp which enables a descriptive explanation of 
the idea, in other words, to a defining of the term. 

Very much of mind growth consists of such processes. 
Starting with sensations unrecognized, or terms not under- 
stood, the mental exercise proceeds to place in the mind 
the final concept, generalized and capable of a definition. 
All learning is thus analytico-synthetic, the synthesis being 
carried into generalization. It is evident that the process 
is one of induction, starting with the terms related to 
known ones, and by comparison leading to an identification. 

The products of such a process may next be used as 
elements of deductive or inductive reasoning, or stored 
away in the memory for future use. Memory is not so 
much a matter of putting a fact into the memory, but of so 
associating it that it can be recalled at will. Exercise 
strengthens it. Distinct ideas are more readily retained 
than hazy ones. Intensely interesting ones are more 
available than abstract ones ; we recall best what we have 
attended to. Cook said, "Attention is the mother of mem- 
ory, and interest is the mother of attention. To secure 
memory, secure both her mother and grandmother." Re- 

26 



calling is to a great extent a habit; hence, repetition and 
drill are essential to it. 

The assimilation of food for the mind begins with the 
stages of conception. Beginning with clear concepts, 
inside processes, reflections, are possible. Judgment is 
one of these faculties, and consists of establishing qualities 
by comparing concepts. It is synthetic, leading to the for- 
mulation of propositions, and the thinking of sentences. 
By comparison of judgments we reason. Reasoning may 
consist of the Inductive or Deductive processes known to 
logic. Both have a place in devising Methods of Teaching, 
and mind growth is possible in each way. 

Our educational methods are weak in that the acquisi- 
tional crowds too closely upon the assimilational in our 
courses of study. The child is not given time to think. 
Too often, he does not think at all. He acquires a fact 
possibly as words; and then expresses these by a parrot- 
like repetition. To stimulate thought, verbal expression 
should be eliminated, in many cases, by propounding ques- 
tions that require an exercise of judgment and reason to 
answer. Originality and the clothing of thought in new 
word garments should be emphasized. 

As defective as education is in training to judge and 
reason, it is equally as lacking in the exercise of the imagi- 
nation. For all-round mind growth, imagination also must 
be exercised. It is essential to originality. It is the 
development which enables the discovery of new ideas, 
the invention of new combinations, and the progress of 
mankind. 



27 



V. MOTIVES 

Much of the teacher's effort is lost because the child is 
not mentally active. Mental activity is possible only when 
active attention is present; and active attention must pro- 
ceed from within the child, if any proper and sustained 
effort is to be maintained. It is true that, temporarily, the 
attention may be attracted through stimuli from without, 
but such are expedients and not for practical continuence. 
Indeed, it is a damage to correct growth rather than a 
benefit, to cultivate a habit in the child to depend upon 
such outside influences for awakening attention, which are 
thus to serve as motives in intellectual activity. Such 
means are temporarily useful, and some or all are expedient 
with certain minds at certain times. 

Since "proper growth in motives" is one of the essen- 
tial parts of the definition of education, and the first of its 
processes, it is necessary at this stage of the development 
of the subject to give some attention to the motives that 
serve in awakening attention and leading toward the 
proper tendencies and habits. First, briefly let us con- 
sider a few of the common motives, which can be classed 
under Improper Motives. These are — 

1. Physical Pain. The backwoods schoolmaster of 
a century ago set this before his pupils as the almost sole 
incentive to attention, the propelling motive to intellectual 
growth. The birch and hickory sapling frequently applied, 
the tingling promptings of the ferule, slapping, boxing, 
and shaking were the forms used. Others were even 
more severe and brutal. I arh not speaking of these as 
modes of punishment for broken law, but as motives to 
intellectual effort. Nor do I admit that in some cases, and 
at certain ages, under peculiar conditions they are not 
valuable as motives " even in this enlightened twentieth 
century. But they are not the normal resort, and as a 
general thing the pupil needing them is not the safe asso- 

28 



ciate for the average normal child. They ought to be 
segregated into special schools where they are among pupils 
of their kind, and where they can best receive the proper 
treatment to fit their case. But under ordinary conditions 
the true teacher can not depend upon such expedients as 
incentives to a correct mental growth. The motive must 
be a deeply accepted mainspring of action within the child's 
inind, which shall at all times be a suflScient and reasonable 
inspiration to the plodding, patient duties which are in- 
separably connected with education. Fear of bodily pain 
is not such an inspiration. 

2. Painful Emotions. Shame, ridicule, and mental 
anguish, may at times be found permissible, but it is self- 
evident that they are not proper motives to a correct 
growth, and as foreign to that purpose as is the inflicting 
of physical pain. Indeed, to some natures, they are the 
worst punishments that might be inflicted, and punish- 
ments are not motives. The use of sarcasm, applied to the 
proper nature and at the proper time, may punish, or pre- 
vent the committing of some deed, but it has no value as 
an incentive to mental growth. Faultfinding, admitted to 
the school-room atmosphere, is like the smoky hazes which 
hide the best light and touch the hopes and sunshine of 
youth with unnatural shadow and tinge. The child who 
is attent upon mental efi'ort through fear of pain to his 
sense of justice, or to his sacred feelings, and holiest emo- 
tions, is not in a condition for the correct growth of mind 
and the forming of proper habits. 

3. Reivards. Under this, will be classed such ex- 
pedients as prizes, medals, and money. Some teachers 
appeal to the motive elements in the child through prom- 
ised rewards ; some parents pay the child money, for the 
performance of the little acts which should be the ex- 
pression of a voluntary and mutual part in the home or- 
ganization and well-being. Both of these acts are an 
appeal to a debasing motive, rather than an elevating one. 
It is consistent with the bloodthirsty commercialism of the 
age, but is a motive of the selfishness instead of the 

29 



sympathies which must characterize the real golden age. 
There are things of real worth in life which money can not 
buy; there are states and conditions which are more satis- 
fying than decorations and medals and orders and prizes. 
Happy is the child whose mind has not been blunted to 
feel this holy state of conscience and of power. 

4. Shock and Surprises. It is a difficult matter to 
find a term which shall be sufficiently inclusive and desig- 
native for these motives. Of this class, are the devices 
of anecdotes, jokes, the play of wit, the vestment of the 
clown, the trick of the wizard, the condition of open- 
mouthed wonder on the part of the pupil, as to what the 
teacher will do next. The improper motive leading the 
child to look upon education as an entertainment, and the 
teacher as the chief entertainer is not to be commended. 
Even our text-books are not immune to the contagion. 
These devices must not be made motives; they are right- 
fully but incidentals, the little touches of color, the flashes 
of sunlight, the aroma of spices, the whispers of the music 
of the breeze. 

There are many other motives that may be listed as 
improper, but the few examples given are typical of the 
class. They show the source of attention as resting upon 
the things from without and not from within. If the mind 
must develop from within, its motives must come from 
within. The teacher can no more than awaken and en- 
courage the weak motive, and help it become strong and 
root deep into the nature and habits of the child. Attempt 
to transplant motives from without, is an appeal to a force 
that must lose its effects as soon as the force is removed. 
Proper motives are a part of a proper education. The 
motives must be adapted to the stage of the child's develop- 
ment is true, but they should tend always toward appealing 
to the highest and best elements of the child's nature. The 
one great and overmastering motive in true education is — 

Love — What higher motive is possible? "God is love," 
says the Apostle of Love. "God so loved the world," is 
the key to the redemptive death of Christ. Love is the 

30 



great motive of Heaven and of earth. It is the unseen 
clockwork of the eternal swing of the stars through space, 
the everlasting melody of the music of the spheres. It 
is the vitalizing nucleus of the germ of the Divine within 
us. No wonder the philosophy of the philosophers led 
Paul to write, "And the greatest of these is love." As a 
motive, or rather as the motive, in Education, it is exhibited 
in several forms, and each of these manifestations has a 
proper place and part in mental development. They are 
mentioned as follows in the order of psychical development : 

1. Love of Self. Self-love can not be made the pre- 
dominating influence in mental and moral growth, but it 
is essential to any well-rounded character. The person 
who has no esteem for his own body, and soul, and mind, 
is beyond the possibility of development into anything 
good or wise. This motive should not be inordinately de- 
veloped or encouraged to the point of selfishness. The 
little child, however, possesses a strong motive in this 
element, and the proper appeal to it is a correct motive to 
upward progress. Predominant in the beginning of the 
educational processes, it should become the least of many 
ways in which the fully grown character answers to love 
as its supreme motive. 

2. Love of Parents and Teachers. As the child 
grows, another love develops, the love of parents and 
teachers. If love of self has been but properly used as 
motive in growth, the child glides into this second stage 
naturally, and the favor of the parents, the approval of the 
teacher, both become the motives for leading to mental and 
moral development. The boy who remains courageous 
enough, and heroic enough, and manly enough, to be true 
to his parents' teaching, is capable of almost unexpressible 
development and growth in all that makes for true great- 
ness. There never has rung a truer sentiment in the 
history of the Republic than that laconic sentiment from 
one raised to the highest position in the power of freemen, 
"Tell mother I'll be there." There is always hope for the 
child whose love for parents is so great that he can face 

31 



every temptation with the words, "What would mother 
say?" "Is this what father would advise?" Some of the 
development of the child must be intrusted to another, to 
one supposedly more skilled in certain phases of child 
growth, the teacher. Are you going to be true to the 
charge? To be fully what you ought to be, you must so 
direct your life, and train your character, that the loving, 
trusting child shall find in you, a personality to love, an 
influence to direct, and a motive to work. Happy, indeed, 
the teacher whose very presence radiates love! 

3. Love of Friends. From parents and teachers the 
child reaches out to a few kindred souls beyond its limited 
circle. And what a psychological instant it is; so fraught 
with future bias. Time does not enable me to speak of the 
part such ones properly chosen and properly used can have 
in educative growth. Much of the trouble at certain ages 
in the life of the pupil comes from this association becom- 
ing so strong that even the love of parents is cast aside. 
Teachers recognize this stage as the "influence of com- 
bination." Combination against discipline is noted, 
against order, even against right and justice. 

4. Love of God. Love of God, through a realization 
of what Christ has done, is the only influence which fully 
nullifies the troublesome element in the influence of com- 
bination mentioned above. Human nature is so constituted 
that just as the danger is greatest, the love of God has its 
most intense influence upon the mind of the boy or girl. 
It is at this age that about three-fourths of the conversions 
to Christianity occur. The wise teacher who strives for 
the groM^th of the mind of the pupil in correct directions, 
must work with the awakened conscience. Here is where 
Christian education becomes ^ powerful force, but educa- 
tion without the testing standards of moral as well as in- 
tellectual worth, will incline to the unbelief, the speculative, 
the mere husks of morality, which have characterized so 
much of modern education. Christian education is not 
a mere sound of words but a crying need of the twentieth 
century growth. 

32 



5. Love of Humanitii. A full recognition of the 
fatherhood of God, and the yielding to its spirit in growth 
along mental, moral, and physical lines, must waken an 
interest in God's most perfect creation, the brotherhood of 
man. The student who has not yet come into a realization 
of his need to the world, his social obligations, his part in 
the salvation and betterment of his fellows, the responsi- 
bility of dedicating his life, his acquirements, his special 
gifts and developed talents, to service, still lacks something 
of the fullness of complete growth. 

6. Love of Knoicledge. When the student comes to 
love knowledge so that he really enjoys study, and finds no 
task too hard, no plodding too irksome, no lesson too long. 
but loves supremely to study and enjoys his freedom in 
diving deep into the depths of the great sea of things known 
and unknown, he needs no other motive. He is educated, 
even if only half through his college course. Without this, 
no student is educated, even though a graduate of a college, 
and a post graduate of a university. 

7. Love of Truth. This is one of the last things the 
student comes to recognize as a motive for the educational 
processes because it is one of the unnoted ones. The 
student's continuous efforts, his dealing with facts, his 
appeal to reason, his conclusions, lead him more and more 
to love the truth even though he may be unconscious of the 
fact. The false, the unprovable, the fraudulent, is avoided 
as a result of his growth in this condition. It thus becomes 
one of the mighty motives in human development. 



33 



VI. THE TENDENCIES IN EDUCATION: OBJECTS 

Educative processes must of necessity tend toward 
some object, or the accomplishment of some purpose. To 
one who has his eyes fixed upon the mere grind and plod 
of knowledge's road, the whole glorious sky of possibilities 
is shut out. There are teachers who have taught for a 
quarter of a century knowing no object all these years save 
the accumulation of knowledge. Like Gradgrind in 
Dickens' story, "Hard Times," their ideal of education is 
dry facts. Blundering may be excusable, and even neces- 
sary in some things, but in training the growing mind, the 
blunderer is a criminal of the worst type in that he is deal- 
ing not only with the mutable mind but with its eternal 
tendencies as well. The true teacher must have clear 
objects in view for his educative efforts, — objects which 
serve like standards of measurement, as the unit by which 
every step in the pupil's mental growth is tested. Toward 
the accomplishment of these efforts every energy should be 
bent. 

We hear much these days about methods and plans. 
Shall the teacher become a mere machine, a creature of 
such devices? Shall he possess himself at random of 
ready-made expedients, the cast-off clothes of some peda- 
gogical visionary? Such methods may be suitable or they 
may not be. Everything paraded as sound pedagogics is 
not true to its label. We need a mental pure food law. 
What surer means then for enabling the teacher to sift the 
true from the false than to test it by his knowledge of what 
education is for, and the tendencies toward which his 
devices must carry him? 

Herbert Spencer's ideas of Education might serve as 
our objects were we to consider mankind as having no 
higher mission than ministering to self. His objects, ar- 
ranged in order of importance, were : Self-preservation, Se- 
curing the necessaries of life, Duties of parents, Social and 

34 



political purposes, Advancement of leisure. For egotistic 
development his tests are adequate. But despite his splen- 
did logic, such do not fulfill the Divine purpose of man. 
Altruistic development is the true direction. The real 
objects in education, and arranged in the proper order as 
determined by importance are : — 

1. Increased Power for Good : Philanthrophy. 

2. Increased Capacity for Enjoyment: Pleasure. 

3. Increased Ability for Success and Gain : Profit. 

Increased Power for Good ranks first. He who hurls 
defiance at Divinity and transgresses the social restrictions 
of man is not educated though he be able to out-reason 
Socrates and out-generalize Newton. There is something 
more in man's development than blind chance or natural 
evolution. Selfishness and selfish motives may overthrow 
nations and disorganize society, but such motives will not 
lift to higher planes of civilization. We hear much about 
the scientific method of study ; indeed, it is the guiding light 
at present in American university research. Not content 
with applying it to its legitimate field, they have attempted 
to reduce Religion to a science, perform laboratory dissec- 
tions upon the Revelation of God, and even limit God to 
an object of experiment and test according to scientific 
methods of procedure. It is a condition supremely ridicu- 
lous were it not so seriously dangerous. The lack of the 
true motive and the true tendencies in education leaves us 
without a clear idea of what education is. The oft-repeated 
statement, "Some of the most highly educated men are 
found in the penitentiary," is false. That men of superior 
attainments in knowledge are occasionally found there is 
readily granted, but they were not educated. Their minds 
had not grown in the normal manner. They are monstros- 
ities. Power for good is the first great unit of educational 
measurement. All teaching is vain which does not promote 
it ; all development is abnormal which can not be measured 
by it. If every teacher should measure his progress by 
this standard for the next hundred years, cannon would 

35 



rust away, drunkenness perish, jails crumble into ruins, 
and labor and capital join fraternal hands, while the 
glorious sunshine of God's universal Church would bathe 
the earth. Capacity to do good and inclination to do it, 
increasing from day to day, ought to be a natural outcome 
of our constant use of text-books. Truth, wherever met 
and whatever its conditions, is still truth. In educational 
growth, there is a constant comparison and judging of 
facts; the real are established, the false are rejected, truth 
is upheld. It fastens itself like coverings of eternal granite 
upon every mental fibre and then binds them together by 
habit until every talent possessed is firmly protected from 
the sweeping hurricanes, and stands firm, a solid power for 
good. Mere accumulations of facts, dates, or rules, are 
not enough. Teachers and pupils ought to understand 
that the development of every faculty and talent but in- 
creases the responsibility for the right use of it in the 
elevation, Christianization and civilization of the race. No 
one individual has all talents, still everyone has some. The 
capacity to use rightly that talent is the prime object of 
educational struggle. Education is not religion, but reli- 
gion in education is as necessary as in any other function 
of life. 

The next object is Increased Facilifi/ for Enjoyment. 
Enjoyment and Pleasure are rightful motives in life, but 
far from being the sole motives. Education not only 
ought to make proper enjoyment a motive, but it also should 
guard against much falsely-called enjoyment, which in the 
final analysis proves to be nothing more than a deeply- 
hidden device of the evil one to entice and destroy. Pleas- 
ure is capable of bringing the highest condition attainable, 
or of plunging into the lowest depths of suffering and 
remorse. To the educated, there is an enjoyment that flows 
from knowledge, culture, and literary taste, that the un- 
educated can never know. There is a contentment that 
springs from an educated conscience and disposition, a 
power to rise above the sorrows and disappointments of 
life, a pleasure that hallows and softens the student's 

36 



struggle. Who has not tasted the solace that a good book 
can give the mind? And education is, after all, but an 
increased ability to understand what we read. In general, 
our reading is confined to the books we can correlate with 
our everyday experience. Carlyle's statement that "The 
best University is in a collection of good books," has a 
depth of meaning. But educated enjoyment is not alone 
in printed pages. The book of nature is spread open all 
about us, and each day but turns a page. The God-given 
mind within us speaks joys that only meditation can hear. 
The beauties of the jeweled canopy of night have an added 
luster for one who understands, and he can catch the melody 
of the singing stars, and measure the steady tread of their 
onward swing. The voice of wind, the murmur of the 
rippling brook, the flash of brightest lightning, and the roar 
of heaven's artillery, are all sources of interest, pleasure, 
and enjoyment, to one who understands instead of super- 
stitiously fears them. In what a different sense the learned 
look upon a flower, a fossil, a leaf, a shell, or an insect. 
If God had meant we were not to enjoy these gifts He 
would never have spread the emerald tints, and azures, 
gold, and crimson, before our curious minds : He would 
never have attuned our ears to music and the cadence of 
oratory : He would never have given us the artist's enjoy- 
ment of motion, of grace, of color, and perfection of form. 
Through the promise of labor, the sweating brow, and the 
aching head, the student rises from the sordid dust to the 
Eden regained. He who is truly educated, in sensibility, 
in conscience, in intellect, in soul, in will, has a wonderfully 
increased power for true enjoyment. 

Last of all objects in education is the Increased Ability 
for Success and Gain, but it is a legitimate object. The 
college graduate no longer feels compelled to apologize when 
he finds himself among successful men, for he finds the 
most of his associates are of like attainments. The most 
successful business men of our land are the best patrons 
of our colleges. The reason is evident. In this age of 
intense competition, the parent who fails to educate his 

37 



child to the utmost limit of his means, — dependent upon the 
health and nature of the child, — is guilty of a real crime, 
even if not so specified among the statutes. There are a 
small number of successful men today who are so because 
of some talent possessed, but the greater part are those 
who are made so by education. There are many stenog- 
raphers who can not hold positions, — though having great 
speed, — solely because they are not intelligent enough to 
compose and spell properly in an ordinary business letter, 
and while able to write from dictation, they have not in- 
telligence sufficient to understand their employer's business 
to avoid making expensive and aggravating blunders. 
What is true of stenographers, is as true of mechanics, 
book-keepers, telegraph operators, clerks, and teachers. 
Invariably, it is the capable, intelligent, educated employee 
who receives promotion, and sooner or later, the educated 
brain forges ahead to success and financial gain. The 
mere ability to differentiate an equation in calculus or other 
equally abstract mathematical process is not worth a cent 
in practical value, but the trained mind upon which the 
process has reacted is worth thousands of dollars. The 
ability to state the size of an atom is worthless in itself, 
from a financial standpoint, but the discipline of mind, the 
acuteness of thought, the concentration of the attention 
upon the imaginary abstractions which reasons to the size 
of the atom is the tangible, and valuable, and costly skill 
which turns the practical into running streams of gold. 



38 



VII. HABIT IN EDUCATION 

In the development of our definition, motives naturally 
result in tendencies, and tendencies in habits. For a full 
discussion of habits, we must suggest, as a foundation, the 
material reaction in nerve tissue. Doubtless, all of habit 
is not physical, and may exist with little or no material 
relation, but our infinite nature is so much the creature of 
our finite sensations that no worthy consideration of habit 
can be had, if it be neglected. Halleck recognizes this 
when he stated, "A well-trained nervous system is the 
greatest friend that the mind can have. An ill-trained 
nervous system is the relentless enemy to the highest mental 
powers. . . . An adult may be approximately defined 
as the sum of his youthful nerve reactions, which tend 
(through habit) to perpetuate themselves." 

Habit is much more closely related to matter than 
motives or tendencies ; indeed, it is to a certain extent the 
result of a continual application of the intellectual moved 
through emotion, directed through tendency, strengthened 
through sensation, applied through volition, and terminat- 
ing upon the nerve tissue. The psychologist treats sensa- 
tion, conception, and memory as the result of habit, but 
might it not as well be reversed and habit considered as a 
result of sensation, conception, and memory? It is merely a 
decision as to whether cause and effect are to be considered 
from the standpoint of material or of final, in scope. 

There is a universe of mystery wrapped up within the 
personality of every one. It is located at the boundary line 
between mind and matter, between the thought and the 
nerve tissue, where the atom and the soul are in touch. We 
must admit of thought independent of nervous energy, but 
few indeed are they who can think such thoughts. So 
true is this, that the follower of scientific method will 
deny such a possibility, since reason and experience are 
decidedly against any such assumption. I must not make 

39 



of this a hair-splitting dissertation in metaphysics; or 
more, a journey into the supernatural. No difference how 
interesting such a discussion might be, or how much of 
truth it may contain, it is foreign to a generally accepted 
view of education. He who educates, and he who is edu- 
cated, are so much within the limit of matter, that we can 
safely say with Dr. Roark, "Wherever gray nerve matter 
is found, whether in plant of in animal, there is mind." 
And still we must not forget that, above all, there is some- 
thing beyond matter. In our day the thing we call matter 
is becoming so impotent. They crucified the material body 
of Christ, but his spirit made Christianity. We reduce 
educational processes to development of nerve matter, but 
we are coming to recognize that through it we must touch 
those higher attributes, or the task is not complete. In 
psychology, the same is true. The nerve ends of touch 
come in contact with an apple, an impulse darts along the 
nerve fibres to the brain ; the wave of light radiated from 
its surface penetrates the eye and impresses the nerve ends 
of sight, of shade, of shadoM^ and of color, and this impulse 
also darts along the nerve fibres to the brain ; the volatile 
particles of the apple float through the nose, wafted on the 
air, come into contact with the nerve ends of olfaction, 
and these impulses also dart along the nerve fibres to the 
brain ; the apple flavors are dissolved in the mouth, and 
come into contact with the taste buds, again an impulse 
darts along the nerve fibres to the brain. Cells in the brain 
reached by these various impulses, project their coiled-up 
fibres and form close contact with numerous other fibres, 
and with each other, and through such mechanical means, 
the touch, color, form, odor, and taste of the apple are 
denominated to the mind, compared, judged, reasoned 
about, imagined in old and new relations, and blended into 
a generalized idea of an apple. But is this a mere condi- 
tion of the matter of the brain? The materialistic 
psychologist claims so. But when we learn that nerve 
matter has been destroyed and the blood at this instant is 
leaving the brain loaded with thousands of the shattered 

40 



particles destroyed in this mental act, and that in time every 
particle of the matter involved may be carried away, while 
the idea still remains, it is evident that there is more than 
a condition of matter involved. Nerve tissues may come 
and nerve tissues may go, but the idea remains forever. 
But in education we are not so much concerned with the 
idea formed, as with the training and means of forming it, 
and in this we can accept all material changes and con- 
ditions that are involved. 

Concerning the matter involved, Ribot said, "A rich 
and well stored memory is not a collection of impressions 
(since the impressible matter is temporary), but an as- 
semblage of dynamic associations, very stable and very 
readily called forth." Herig adds one more link in the 
chain leading to habit, when he says, "If the substance of 
the brain is excited and intensely agitated by an irritation 
which has been transmitted through the nerve fibres of 
the sensory organs, an increased ability to reproduce the 
same kind of irritation is acquired by a permanent change 
of its internal structure. If the sensory nerve again trans- 
mits the same irritation, the cerebral substance responds 
to it more easily." Halleck defines habit and explains it 
from this standpoint when he said, "Habit is, therefore, a 
bundle of memories or tendencies to act again in a way in 
which we have acted before." 

Such a consideration of habit leads to its definition. 
Habit is a training of the nervous system and its functions 
to involuntary, automatic and reflex action. In habit, the 
nerve tissue of the body has become so organized as to not 
only carry out the deliberative acts through promptings of 
the mind, but to act in a pre-arranged manner, without 
dictation from the mind. A definite action or thought 
leaves the nerve tissue involved, in a certain condition; a 
repetition of the action of thought serves more intensely 
to fix the condition, and so on, until the same result 
is so easily performed through suggestion, that under 
proper circumstances, it will be produced without the 
suggestion. In our own personality and character, then, 

41 



our acts and thoughts do not perish. Their results do 
not end with the setting sun ; they are as imperishable 
as ourselves. What I do and say to-day, is almost wholly 
the natural result, through habit, of what I did and said 
yesterday, last week, last month, last year, in childhood, in 
youth. One action fitted the nerve tissues to act with 
greater ease in the same way again. Even inanimate 
things acquire the habit of making wonderful reactions to 
stimuli. A strong bridge may be shaken by the trotting of 
a little dog whose pace is attuned to its vibration time. It 
is well known that the wood of a Cremona violin, which 
has been used by the hands of none but masters, gradually 
acquires a molecular tendency to harmonious resonance. 
If habit, then, is possible in inanimate matter, it is even 
more so in living tissue. Our very life is made possible 
and pleasant through habit. Not a minute of our waking 
experience but habit is relieving our mind of some of its 
otherwise mechanical and absorbing actions. Walking is 
a habit. Talking is a habit. Almost every movement is 
a habit. The little actions of long ago, like filmy cobwebs 
easily broken, have become the immense cables binding us 
to unyielding habit. We hardly think a thought in the 
average day of life's experience, but it has been limited 
through habit. Wundt said, "I, myself, am inclined to 
hold that man really thinks very little and very seldom. 
Many an action which looks like a manifestation of intelli- 
gence most surely originates in association . . . There 
is hardly a movement of the human body, however difficult, 
which we cannot by continued practice and repetition re- 
duce to a mechanical certainty so complete that it will be 
performed, even without any attention on our part, as the 
necessary reaction to certain sense-stimuli." 

Since habits are potential conditions of nerve tissue, 
the best time to properly impress it is during its period of 
greatest grow^th: the years devoted to education. Briefly 
stated, the leading principles of habit-forming are the 
following : 

1. Confidence in our ability, or faith in a suggestion, 

42 



is realized in an act, which repeated often enough forms a 
habit. 

2. Action is necessary for forming habit and char- 
acter. Learn to do by doing. Experiment, observe, ex- 
press through motor activity. 

3. We ought to do an act first as it will be required to 
be done for all future time. It is extremely difficult to 
form one habit to overcome another habit. 

4. Each action repeated deepens the tendency to act 
again in the same way. Friction must be overcome. The 
act must be repeated until it becomes easy. 

5. Exercise is necessary in habit forming. Nerve 
cells should be exercised to the point of reasonable fatigue, 
so as to be placed under the proper condition for being 
made stronger by the blood-carried nutriment which they 
will then be in a condition to assimilate. 

6. Order is a habit. A child should be taught that 
the sensation due to recognizing a thing out of place must 
be followed by the action necessary to put the article back 
into its place. 

7. Uniformity in habit training is essential. It 
means failure to the true development of habit to permit 
the child to react to a certain sensation in one way today, 
and another way tomorrow. 

8. The fundamental habits are truth, attention, 
promptness, exactness, patience, system, and order. These 
will lead to the forming of correct habits of study, thought 
action, expression, and character. 



43 



INDEX 



Ability for Success. 37 

Abstraction, 26 

Accumulation of Knowledge, 6 

Acquisition, 20, 22 

Acts, 20, 42 

Affections, 19 

Agazziz, 25 

Ambition, 20 

Analysis, 25 

Analytico-synthetic Learning, 26 

Ancient Languages, 6 

Animal Feelings, 19 

Animal Growth, 21 

Animal Souls, 16 

Apperception, 20 

Appetites, 19 

Art, 20 

Arts as Food for Mind Growth, 24 

Assimilation, 20, 26, 27 

Association, Effects of, 32 

Attention, IS. 26. 43 

Beauty, 37 

Behavior, Education as a Training in, 9 

Bible in Education, 12, 13, 14 

Body, 15, 18 

Body Related to Mind, 18, 39 

Books. 37 

Capacity for Enjoyment, 36 

Carlyle Quoted. 37 

Chancellor Quoted, 13 

Character, Education in Forming, 8 

Christ in the Edueaiional Teat. 12 

Christian Education, 13, 32 

Choice, Right of, 10. 11 

Classification, 26 

Colleges, Church, 12, 13. 14 

Combinations, Force of, 32 

Combining Age, 32 

Comparison, 25 

Complete Living, Education as, 8 

Composition, 20, 23. 24 

Conception, 20, 26, 40 

Conditions of Mind, 18 

Confidence in Habit, 48 

Consciousness, 18, 22 

Conversion Age, 32 

Courses of Study, 24. 25 

Cook Quoted. 26 



Cremona Violin, 42 
Creative Faculty, 20 

Deduction, 27 

Definition, 26 

Definition of Education, 10, 11 

Denomination, 26 

Desires, 19 

Divine Plan, 10 

Elaboi-ative Faculties, 20 

Emancipation from Environaient, 7 

Emotions, 19, 29 

Empirical Knowledge, 20 

Emulation, 20 

Enjoyment, 36, 37 

Environment in Education, 7 

Eternal Nature of Mind, 16, 17. 41 

Ethics, 12 

Evolution* Education as. 6 

Evolution as a Test, 13 

Examinations, 6 

Exercise in Habit Forming, 43 

Expression, 20, 23, 24 

Faculties, 20 

Faith in Education. 14, 43 

Fault-finding, 29 

Feelings, 19 

Financial Values in Education, 37, 38 

Food for Mind Growth. 21, 24, 26 

Friends. Love of, 32 

Gain. 37 

Generalization. 26 

Gesture, 20 

God. Love of, 32 

God in Truth, 13 

Goodwin Quoted, 16 

Government Control of Education, 12 

Gradgrind, 34 

Growth, Education as a, 9, 11 

Growth of Mind, 21 

Habit, 26, 39 
Habits, 41 

Rules for Forming. 43 
Halleck Quoted, 39, 41 
Harris Quoted. 17, 18 
Hering Quoted, 41 
Hinsdale Quoted, 9, 18 



45 



History as Food for Mind, 24 
Holbrook Quoted, 10 
Humanity, Love of, 33 

Idea-forming Process, 40 
Imagination, 20, 27 
Imitation, 20 

Immateriality of Mind, 17 
Improper Motives, 28 
Incentives, or Motives, 28 
Induction, 27 
Inside Process, 20, 23, 26 
Inside-out Process, 20, 23 
Instincts, 19 
Intellect, 19, 20 
Intuition, 20, 22 

Judgment, 20, 23, 27 

Kingdoms, The Four, 5 
Knovcledge, 6 
Love of, 33 

Language as Food for Mind, 24 
Literature as Food for Mind, 24 
Learning, Act of, 22 
Living, Education as Complete, 8 
Love, as Motive, 31 

of Friends, 32 

of God, 32 

of Humanity, 33 

of Knowledge, 33 

of Parents, 31 

of Self, 31 

of Teaoher, 31 

of Truth, 33 

Man, a Trichotomy, 16 

Man's Limitations, 14 

Marble Figured in Education, 7 

Material Change, Education as. 7 

Materialism. 14, 40 

Medals, 29 

Memory, 20, 23, 26, 41 

Mental Activity, 22, 25 

Methods, 25, 34 

Milton, 25 

Mind Discussed, 14 

Mind, its Constitution, 11 

Growth, 21 

Powers, 19 

Relation to Body. 18. 40 
Miracles, 14 
Montosorri System. 22 
Moi-al Education, 12 
Motives. 28 



Music, 20 

Natural Manner of Mind-growth, 22 
Nerve Action, 40 

in Habit, 41 

Relation to Mind, 18, 40 
New Education, 10, 11 
Newton, 25 

Objects in Education, 34 

Order, 43 

Orginality. 27 

Outside-in Process, 20, 23, 26 

Pain, Physical, 28 

Emotional 29 
Parents, Love of, 31 
Perception, 20, 23, 25 
Philanthropy, 35 
Philosophy, as Mind Food, 25 
Physical Education, 12 

Feelings, 19 
Plant Growth, 21 
Pleasure, 36, 37 
Pneuma, 16 
Power for Good» 35 
Powers of Mind, 19 
Practical Studies, 8 
Presentative Faculties. 20 
Presentation, 25 
Prizes, 29 
Profit, 35 
Promptness, 43 
Psyche, 16 
Psychology, 15, 18 

Value to Teachers, 18 
Psychic Kingdom, 5 
Psychical Feelings, 19 
Punishments. 28. 29 

Questions, Formulation of, 27 

Rational Beings as Developed by Educa- 
tion, 8 

Rational Faculties, 20 

Reading, 24, 37 

Reason, 20, 24, 27 

Rebot Quoted, 41 

Recollection, 20 

Religion, 13, 35 

Religious Psychology, 16 

Remembrance, 20 

Representative Faculties, 20 

Responsibility, 32, 35 
I Retentive Faculty, 20. 23, 26 
I Revelation, 13 

Rewards, 29 



46 



Roark Quoted, 40 

Rules for Habit Forming, 43 

Sarcasm, 29 

Science, Education as a, 5, 9 

As Food for Mind, 24 
Scientific Method, 35 
Sculpture, 20 

Self-activity of Mind, 18, 22, 25 
Self-love, 31 
Sensations, 19, 22 
Sensibility, 19 
Shakespeare, 25 
Shock, Mental, 30 
Skill, 38 
Soul, 15, 16 

Spartan Idea of Education, 11 
Spencer, 8, 34 
Speech, 20 
Spirit, 15, 16 

Standard for Testing Education, 13 
Surprises, 30 
Synthesis, 26 



Teacher, Love of, 31 

Tendencies in Education, 34 

Test for Correctness in Education, 10, 

11, 12 
Text-Books, 24 
Thinking, Time for, 27 
Trichotomy, 16 
Truth, 11, 14, 33, 43 
Love of, 33 

Understanding, 20 
Unity of Mind, 17 

Views of Education, Popular, 5 
Voluntary Feelings, 20 

Wax Figure in Education, 7 
Weaknesses in Education, 27 
Whipping as a Motive, 28 

As Punishment, 28 
Will, 19, 20 
Wundt Quoted, 42 



47 



